[p 58]
]CHAPTER VI
LARRIE THE LOAFER
‘She had
A heart—how shall I say? too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed: she liked what e’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.’
Larrie and Dot had come upon the great rock that lies near the beginning of the matrimonial path of all those who marry for love.
Oh the wonderful capacity they had in those days for torturing themselves! Larrie used to brood continually in secret over the change that had come into their lives; his manner grew cold and indifferent and he consumed as much tobacco as a man long years in the bush, and Dot used to shed hot, angry, grieving tears in private and devote herself to [p 59] ]the management of the house or the baby in the time that once she had always devoted to her husband.
Once in one of the passionate little outbursts she was subject to, she scoffed at him for his idleness.
‘No wonder you are so fault-finding, Larrie,’ she said, ‘staying at home day after day like an old maid. Other husbands don’t tie themselves to their wives’ apron-strings as you do.’
It was a little unjust of her, this pettish speech, though she had received provocation.